Americans by 2-to-1 Would Pay More to Curb Climate Change

The U.S. Capitol Building stands past the natural gas and coal fueled Capitol Power Plant, which provides heating and cooling throughout the 23 facilities on Capitol Hill including House and Senate Office Buildings, in Washington, D.C. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Americans are willing to bear the
costs of combating climate change, and most are more likely to
support a candidate seeking to address the issue.

By an almost two-to-one margin, 62 percent to 33 percent,
Americans say they would pay more for energy if it would mean a
reduction in pollution from carbon emissions, according to the
Bloomberg National Poll.

While Republicans were split, with 46 percent willing to
pay more and 49 percent opposed to it, 82 percent of Democrats
and 60 percent of independents say they’d accept higher bills.

“We’re already hitting 110 degrees here,” said Larry
McNamed, a 44-year-old independent in Henderson, Nevada. “A lot
of people are trying to sweep this under the rug, but we need to
do something. It’s only going to get hotter.”

President Barack Obama is moving forward with new rules
that would require states to reduce carbon emissions from power
plants. The White House sees the plan, released June 2 by the
Environmental Protection Agency, as a way to reduce emissions 30
percent by 2030 from 2005 levels.

The administration calculates that utilities and their
customers will spend as much as $8.8 billion to comply. Barclays
Plc has forecast that the rules would add 10 percent to electric
utility rates by 2030.

The EPA proposal is likely to be modified during a public
comment period, and a bipartisan coalition of coal-state
lawmakers have vowed to pass legislation to block them.

Rare Result

“It is a rare poll where people responding will stand up
and say ‘tax me,’” said J. Ann Selzer, founder of Des Moines,
Iowa-based Selzer & Co., which conducted the June 6-9 poll of
1,005 U.S. adults that has a margin of error of plus or minus
3.1 percentage points.

Obama’s proposal has divided his party along regional
lines. While Democratic Senate candidates in Iowa and Colorado
back the emission limits, others in coal-states such as West
Virginia and Kentucky have distanced themselves from them.

More than half of all Americans and majorities of female,
young, and independent respondents who plan to vote in the
midterm elections say candidates who support measures to curb
climate change are more likely to win their backing.

“Climate change is going to be a disaster for my
grandchildren and their grandchildren,” said Lori Hartman, a
retired teacher in Buffalo, New York. “They have to do
something right now -- not years from now.”

Climate Threat

A majority of Americans see climate change as a threat,
with 46 percent classifying it as a “major” threat and 27
percent as a “minor threat.” Half would like the federal
government to adopt policies to combat it in the next decade.

Yet while Americans back taking action on climate change,
53 percent doubt the president’s assertion that a reduction of
soot and smog will lead to substantial health benefits.

Seventy-three percent of Republicans, 60 percent of
independents, and 30 percent of Democrats said the new standards
won’t reduce the number of cases of asthma and other respiratory
diseases.

“It’s not going to work unless the rest of the world is
going to do it, too,” said Betty Wieland, 77, a retired nurse
from Modesto, California. “China is more than making up for
anything we do in climate change.”

Support for action falls along party lines. Seventy percent
of Democrats and 51 of independents say they are more likely to
back candidates who call for taking action on climate change,
compared with just 28 percent of Republicans.

The public also is split on the scientific underpinnings of
climate change. Forty-eight percent say they “trust” warnings
from scientists about the problem, while 43 percent say
scientists “manipulate their findings for political reasons.”

“There are more important things for me to vote on,” said
Anthony Farah, 35, of San Antonio. “Taxes, immigration, health-care reform, the economy -- I’d put those things before climate
change.”